Deepening Schism in Orthodox Church is a sign of Coming Destruction, Chaos, & War

Where lies the possibility for Redemption, and Salvation?

By now, most concerned parties and individuals have been made aware of the recent declaration of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, which has declared that the US, Zionist, and Vatican II project known as the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is an independent entity from the Patriarchate of Moscow.

This is representative of phenomenon which really pushes beyond the ability for the radical materialists to understand. While its true that this reflects an ongoing geopolitical conflict, as religious divisions have also historically represented such, it represents something more. Rather, or in addition, it reflects a furthering of the global break-down of religion and related institutions. The generation of May 1968 saw this as a positive development, but instead these were their own internal projections, traumas from childhood, and the problem of modernity, projected onto institutions which had merely carried forward into modernity, from the past. But religion is not a problem of modernity. Rather, the problems infecting religion are problems of modernity, which are in turn reflective of problems in the human experience at this time in history.

The overt, ‘gut’ instinct for many is this: Moscow – the Third Rome – must include the liberation of Constantinople – the First or Second Rome, depending on your view of chronology – within its geopolitical aims. Constantinople, known also as Istanbul but also Tsargrad will only transfer out of the hands of its present rulers, when Ankara breaks its back, and is forced to give it up. Hopefully such a thing can happen peacefully, if that is the aim. We suspect the real problem is more complex, and yet simpler, than all of that.

Whether we can confront ourselves or not, is the biggest challenge we face. Blaming others, is a projection of our lower-self onto others, and a critical mistake.

If we as beings incarnated onto this realm, to have this experience which we have chosen, had been anything less than these tormented souls, we would have never gone to such length, to such distance, to push to become what we are and can be. If we had never seen the world through the eyes of a child, as god later also had to do, or rather, has also done through us, we, beings with the spark of divinity within us, made of clay and earth – then the will to stop time, to restrain and to hold back as much as possible the coming of the apocalypse, to do the work of Katehon, it would not be possible.

There are those wanting to immanentize the eschaton such that they see, through nuclear war and annihilation as Ronald Reagan alluded to, and the (so-called, errant and heretical) Christian Dominionists in the military and in leadership in the US such as Pence, the coming of salvation. But they are not working towards the salvation of souls, but their destruction. Rather, the necessary work is to work to hold it back. Their heretical work aligns with the work of the Zionists in Israel today pushing to rebuild the Temple. Of course, we are faced with a conundrum, that such work may also be the realization of the inevitable as well, and this has profound implications. But we must never give in to making fear-based decisions. We should be giving fuel to the aeons, not stoking the archons unless as a ruse to convert this power to the aeons.

Instead, our work must be to bring beauty into the world. We are political soldiers and spiritual warriors. We are not pacifists. We have been engaged in this fight, and will continue this fight for the liberation of mankind and the spirit until our last breaths. We understand and support the justified use of violence in self-defense, and against the great arrogance of imperialism. We want to train the next generation, and keep the present one focused on the work and supportive of our project. The example set by Hezbollah is an excellent one, they have shown what is possible, and have provided many keys and clues about what is to be done.

According to the eschatological framework of numerous world religions, not only the so-called Abrahamic, we are furthering along into a period of Death, Chaos, War, Redemption, and finally Salvation. It would be a mistake to understand these purely as political, institutional, or geopolitical issues. While they appear in those realms also, these are chiefly additionally matters of conscience, of the heart, of the soul, and the internal battle that we must all engage in, of the higher-self against the lower-self.

Metropolitan Hilarion has said something very critical on September 8, 2018, after his interview which broadcast live on the Russia-24 TV channel. Metropolitan Hilarion, head of the Moscow Patriarchate department for external church relations, made the following statement for the mass media regarding the developments in response. He has been clear that Patriarch Bartholomew will bear personal responsibility before the judgement of God and the judgement of History.

“The Patriarchate of Constantinople announced yesterday that it was sending two exarchs, that is, its special representatives, to Kiev. Today the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church has made a statement pointing to the unlawfulness of this step. The sending of exarchs (special representatives) or any other representatives to another Local Church can be done only with an agreement of this Local Church. No request whatsoever has been made to either the Patriarch of Constantinople or the Patriarch of Moscow or Metropolitan Onufry, who has been repeatedly recognized publicly by Patriarch Bartholomew as the only canonical head of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine.

“This action has been undertaken in violation of church canons and it cannot remain without response. We hope that Constantinople will reconsider this decision. If it does not happen, we will have to find an appropriate decision, to take steps in response.

“The Patriarchate of Constantinople states today that the appointed special representatives will work on the completion of the project for granting autocephaly to the Ukrainian Church, which was announced as far back as last April and which they want to finalize. What does it mean from our point of view? It implies, in the first place, the legitimization of the schism in Ukraine, since it is only the schismatics who claim autocephaly, whereas the canonical Ukrainian Church, which unites a majority of the Orthodox faithful in Ukraine (over 12 thousand parishes, over 200 monasteries) has not asked for any autocephaly, for any independence. On the contrary, the Bishops’ Conference of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which has just taken place, has made a unanimous decision that the status enjoyed by this Church is optimal for her. And it is the status of a self-governed Church that is part of the Moscow Patriarchate.

“Thus the Patriarchate of Constantinople is now openly on the warpath. And it is a war not only against the Russian Church, not only against the Ukrainian Orthodox people; it is a war actually against the unity of the whole world Orthodoxy.

“Because if this, I would say mean and perfidious, project is carried out, most of the Orthodox faithful in Ukraine will reject this autocephaly. The Russian Orthodox Church will not accept this decision. We will have to break off communion with Constantinople, and then Constantinople will no longer have the rights to claim leadership in the Orthodox world. Now the Patriarchate of Constantinople poses as a sort of leader of the 300 million-strong Orthodox population of the globe and the Patriarch of Constantinople is perceived as almost the Orthodox pope. But at least a half of this 300 million-strong population will no longer recognize him even as the first in the family of Orthodox Churches.

“I think that Patriarch Bartholomew will bear personal responsibility for this action before the judgement of God and the judgement of history.”

The Kingdom of Heaven is not, or rather not just, a future-perfect realm. It is one which resides in the heart and can be realized today and now through the act of submission to the greatness, splendor, magnificence, and mystery which is existence, the cosmos, life, meaning, the universe, and the power which brought it all into being. It is to realize that we are all but children, and that only through humility and the awareness of one’s smallness, yet containing the spark of creation which is infinity – even the smallest fraction of infinity is still infinite, as our souls – it is only through this act of submission, to be humble, to be human, to have humility, the root word here being ‘hum’, of earth, like humus – that we can achieve a direct connection to the source.

When you achieve this, you will experience this as tears of joy as you look up to the heavens from which you came. You will experience relief, charity, hope, gratification, and answers all at once. It is overwhelming. And so the damage being done to religion, in the west we see it happening to Christianity the most, is a necessary outcome of the corruption of religion and religious thinking in this time of the Kali Yuga. That is true prayer. The universe reads your thoughts, there is no need to ‘vocalize’ them in your head.

Now we are seeing two simultaneous phenomenon. A global process of de-secularization, as the paradigm of radical materialism comes to an end – not without a lot of lashing out and chaos along the way – and the new coming period of rectifying the fact that the correct epistemological framework of science was an exploration of the mind of man and the world of creation around us, and in so doing, to understand the essence of our existence and the meaning of it all. Religion is on the rise, in the positive sense.

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At the same time, we are seeing massive shifts within religions institutions, which have by and large failed in their missions in many ways, perhaps inevitably and perhaps out of the control of any individuals or groups operating within these institutions. The institution of religion is a very important one to the human experience, as well as the spiritual and religious element of the human experience, and these institutions should be refounded, revised, restored, conserved, revolutionized, reformed – the words here don’t matter, and can point to any number of things, as they always do.

The Orthodox Catholic Church, known commonly as Orthodoxy has, on the balance, fared the strongest, weathered the storm the best. It did not ‘survive’ the totalitarianism of communism, it was protected by communism from the atomization and nihilism of western capitalism and consumerism. Hence, we can start to understand, that communist materialism and capitalist consumerism are related, but not equal or the same. But that is a different question for another time. Today, communist movements in the so-called global south represent the earnest and truthful movements, generally, of indigenous peoples against globalization – that is – capitalist imperialism. In the first world, the movement is a little different, and relies more heavily on spiritual regeneration, moving beyond victimological frameworks, and the various ‘other-blaming’ ideologies, whether so-called Cultural Marxism or so-called Antisemitism.

But there is an illness in the institutions of world religions, which must be cured. This is happening in Islam, with Salafism, in Christianity with its churches of all denominations as well, Orthodoxy being the latest victim, in Buddhism and the overtaking of Lamaism within Buddhism at the expense of other iterations as well.

And yet, people are becoming more religions, not less. This is a process, again, called global de-secularization. This is of particular interest to the parent organization of FRN, the Center for Syncretic Studies, Belgrade.

These are dual, contradictory phenomenon which can be reconciled through understanding that the destruction of religions institutions contains within it both problems and solutions. Again, the problem is not the church, the institution, but man – at this time – himself.

We overcome this through humility and love. We are perfectly aware that a small portion of the FRN readership is going to not agree with this message, or is not yet ready to accept it. We only humbly ask for your respect and patience, as what we have reported, and how we have reported things, all fits together. It all has a purpose, and it is entirely centered on truth. Understanding our journalistic and editorial perspective is that of delivering the truth, is why the readers have counted on FRN for the last four years to uncover and report on stories mostly from war zones, the so-called developing world, and also the intrigues and conspiracies which are now regularly and obviously visible in 1st world political institutions.

This is why what is happening today in Orthodoxy is a very disappointing and problematic development.

According to the portal Pravmir, the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Constantinople has appointed its Exarchs (representatives) in Kiev, Ukraine. This was stated in the Announcement of the Ecumenical Patriarchate on September 7, 2018. The text reads as follows:

“Within the framework of the preparations for the granting of autocephaly to the Orthodox Church in Ukraine, the Ecumenical Patriarchate has appointed as its Exarchs in Kiev His Excellency Archbishop Daniel of Pamphilon from the United States, and His Grace Bishop Ilarion of Edmonton from Canada, both of whom are serving the Ukrainian Orthodox faithful in their respective countries under the Ecumenical Patriarchate.”

I want to draw the reader’s attention to the wise words, the situation according to regular FRN contributing writer, Padraig McGrath (The Irish Crimean):

The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople has declared the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to be independent of the Patriarchate of Moscow.

In order for the Patriarchate of Constantinople to make this move, logically, implies that it sees itself as having primacy within world-Orthodoxy. Ecumenism and ethnophiletism are both historically and theologically very tricky issues in Orthodox ecclesiology.

In the current geopolitical climate, it is deeply worrying and disturbing that a Canadian bishop and an American bishop have been appointed as the Constantinople Patriarchate’s representatives to Kiev.

On the other hand, if we look at the pragmatic aspects of the current geo-strategic situation regarding Russia-Ukraine, let’s face it, it s simply unrealistic to hope that the Ukrainian Orthodox Church can continue to operate under the ecclesiastical authority of Moscow – political conditions outside the church have made that historically long-standing arrangement untenable, unfortunately.

Are this American Orthodox bishop and this Canadian Orthodox bishop intelligence-assets of the western alliance? Are they CIA-assets? It is entirely plausible that they may be. Is Bartholomew himself a CIA-asset? At the moment, he may as well be.

But then again, I always suspected that Seraphim Rose was also a CIA-asset. His ultimately nihilistic, apocalyptic message was no less useful as an instrument of Atlanticist imperialism.

Joaquin Flores is Editor-in-Chief of Fort Russ News, as well as the Director of the Belgrade based think-tank, the Center for Syncretic Studies. Educated at California State University, Los Angeles, in the field of International Relations, he previously served as Chief Negotiator and Internal Organizer in several jurisdictions for the SEIU labor union in California. Flores has twenty years experience in community, labor, and anti-war organizing. Flores has appeared regularly on Iran’s ‘PressTV’ and Russia’s ‘RT’ news to share his expert opinion and analysis on current geopolitical matters. As a Thought Leader, he has spoken publicly internationally at numerous forums, published in over 10 languages, his conceptual and ideological frameworks, approaches to branding and aesthetics have influenced others in his field.